The present invention relates to toothbrushes in general, and more particularly to improvements in toothbrushes of the type having surfaces for reception of indicia.
British Pat. No. 351,159 discloses a toothbrush whose handle bears indicia on surfaces which are recessed into the handle or which are partitioned off from the remaining portion of the handle. A drawback of such toothbrushes is that the indicia and the indicia-bearing surface or surfaces do not extend laterally beyond the handle. Thus, and since the handle of a toothbrush is a relatively narrow elongated body, the indicia are necessarily small. Therefore, such indicia do not readily hit the eye and cannot be used as an effective means for facilitating rapid and reliable recognition of a particular toothbrush among additional toothbrushes. Moreover, the just discussed conventional brushes cannot be readily suspended, either in the store or in the home of the user, except if they are provided with holes in those end portions of the handles which are remote from the bristles.
German Utility Model No. 19 93 022 discloses a modified toothbrush whose handle has an enlarged end portion which is remote from the brushes and supports a mirror. The latter resembles the mirror on a dentist's implement and serves an analogous purpose, especially to enable the user to observe the inner sides of his or her teeth. The toothbrush of this Utility Model does not bear any indicia, especially none of the type which would be capable of readily distinguishing a particular toothbrush from other toothbrushes in a store (e.g., a drugstore) or at home where the rack for toothbrushes or a cup for toothbrushes is likely to contain a reasonable or even large number of toothbrushes belonging to different members of the family.